Tag Archives: Thai food

Hessen, holidays

A full moon over Wiesbaden… our first taste of Fasching.

I have a confession to make.  Although I have, at this writing, spent six full years in Germany, today was the first time we experienced a Fasching celebration.  And we experienced it quite by accident.  I didn’t know this was going to be going on today, probably because I’m not very religious.  Wiesbaden, to my knowledge, is less religious than Stuttgart is.  Actually, what I do remember of Baden-Württemberg at this time of year is that people dress in costumes, as an American celebrating Halloween might, but the costumes are kind of scary and macabre.  Or… at least that’s what our parsimonious ex landlady told us before she started hating us.  I had heard that in other parts of Germany, such as Bavaria, the costumes are more funny and lighthearted.  Since I haven’t really hung out in any Fasching celebrations before today, I can’t say for certain.

A nice first picture for the display.  Most of the others are a lot raunchier.

To be honest, Bill and I usually do other things when Fasching is going on.  I do remember seeing the tail end of celebrations, as people walked by in their costumes.  It looked like fun… but until today, I never experienced it firsthand.  I’ve also never been to New Orleans, let alone Carnival.  This tradition is a mystery to me.  I have led such a sheltered life.

We went to downtown Wiesbaden for lunch, before a trip to the commissary to stock up on junk food before Bill goes TDY next weekend.  I got a first inkling that it was time to Fasch when I saw a little kid in a dragon costume.  Then I noticed all kinds of other costumes, worn by people of all ages, but especially the young.  I got loads of pictures.  Feast your eyes.

The first costume I saw.  It was relatively tame.  The main drag was shut down for the parade, which was pretty epic.

 

We saw lots of flamingos.  This was the first.

 

I felt like I’d run into the characters from the Wizard of Oz.

 

I still haven’t stopped in this store, where the world’s biggest cuckoo clock supposedly is.  I thought the biggest one was near Triberg.  I’m sure only the Americans care.

It seemed somewhat sedate… just lots of people in costumes milling around.

 

Yeah… not so exciting… yet.

 

Except for this music shop… I need to explore it on a day that isn’t Sunday.

 

Things were heating up here.

It had started to rain and it was getting close to the witching hour of 2:00pm, which is when many restaurants shut down lunch.  There was a lot of street food available and plenty of booze, but I wasn’t really wanting sausages and shots.  I suddenly remembered a really nice Thai restaurant we tried in October, when we came to Wiesbaden looking for housing.  Chookdee Thai is right downtown, next to the Wiesbaden Town Hotel, where we stayed the first time we visited Wiesbaden.  When we visited then, we sat outside, because we had our dogs.  Since it was raining today, we went inside.  That was a good thing to do for many reasons.

Chookdee Thai was mostly booked today.  It has a small, but very beautifully decorated dining room. We had to sit in the area where you have to shed your shoes.  That meant climbing over a platform like area.  It was kind of cool, if not awkward.  We had to inconvenience the people sitting next to us, since Bill couldn’t get to his seat without climbing over the ladies at the next table.

You take off your shoes if you sit at one of the traditional tables.  They have slippers, but we didn’t bother with them.

 

The walls were covered with this.  It was beautiful.

 

Bill decides on lunch.  He had shrimp pad Thai.  I think I might have even seen our new landlord in costume while we were eating.  He has a very distinctive expression on his face.  He usually looks amused, which is a relief to me.

 
 

Really… a very nice place.  This was taken just before 3:00, which is when they pause until dinner.

 

Of course, Fasching is a time when people go a little nuts.  There’s a lot of drinking and dancing, especially among the young.  They had live music and I saw lots of kids with homemade potions in big plastic bottles, no doubt loaded with cheap alcohol.  And a whole bunch of them decided to congregate at the outside table in front of our Thai restaurant.  This place is actually kind of in an alcove/alley way.  I wouldn’t say it’s in the thick of Wiesbaden’s main square.  But it seemed like every high spirited hooligan decided to party in front of Chookdee Thai, much to the chagrin of the restaurant’s proprietor, who looked a bit pissed as young man after young man pissed in the corner between a parked van and a wall, in full view of the patrons.

The dude in the hat was dressed as a cow.  He encountered another cow while we were having lunch and the two of them started “milking” each other’s udders.

The sly looking pirate was the first guy who whizzed in front of us.  He looks devious, doesn’t he?

And these two aliens cracked me up.  I saw another impressive guy in a Spiderman costume that left nothing to the imagination.  I was impressed by how well he wore it.

 

Lunch came.  I had fried shrimp with green beans, garlic, rice, and garlic sauce.  It was all served family style and delicious.  I must admit, the show outside made our meal all the better.

Yummy rice…

Shrimp pad Thai.

Fried shrimp with green beans and steaming hot garlic sauce with cilantro.  Tasty and filling.

 

I kept watching the kids outside and took photos, because I’m tacky… and the cow dude apparently noticed.  He got on top of the table outside and mooned us.  I got several photos of his bare ass, which was surprisingly hairless and zitless.

Yeah… a little “courage”…

Mounting the table.

Getting in position…

I always seem to be at the right place at the right time, don’t I?

Wow.  I actually got a few pictures of this, but these were the best of the lot.  After he mooned us, the guy got down and basically took a bow.  Most everyone in the restaurant was dying laughing.  The German lady sitting behind me was quite amused that I got photos.  She showed them to her family, which included a couple of young kids.  Germans can be remarkably uptight about some things… but when it comes to nudity, they let it all hang out.

 

Anyway… that was about the end of lunch, so we finished up and split.  I do like Chookdee Thai under the best of circumstances.  Today was just an unusually entertaining day to eat there.  I walked around a bit more and got a few more pictures before we headed to the commissary.

Gonna have to check this out.

Love was in the air…

Especially brotherly love.

These folks had the right idea.

So did they.

I’ve heard the parade in Mainz is tomorrow and it’s supposedly even wilder than Wiesbaden’s is.  I don’t how I managed to miss this every year.  It’s quite the shitshow.  I do enjoy German style fun.  I don’t enjoy German style anal retentiveness.  But this goes to show that Germans can let their hair down, too.

And it was reassuring to know that they were very well prepared if someone had an “Unfall”.  Germans are serious about their fun… and if you get into trouble, they’ll help you out.  And then they’ll probably lecture you.

I got a kick out of this classic Mini Cooper parked near our new fangled (10 year old) one.

As for the commissary, it was its usual self, complete with the remnants of someone’s dump on the ladies’ room floor.  Why do we keep going there?  Because I’m an American and I need my Cheetos… and not just the one sitting in the White House.

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Uncategorized

Whirlwind trip to Wiesbaden– our quest to find new dog friendly digs… Part five

I woke up on Sunday morning with bruises.  Apparently, at some point during the night, I did a little sleepwalking and wound up falling down in the bathroom.  Bill told me this happened at about 1:00am, but I have no memory of it whatsoever.  I will admit that we enjoyed some wine on Saturday night and I was pretty tired when we went to bed.  I also have a history of sleepwalking that dates to childhood, although thankfully, I don’t do it very often anymore.  Anyway, I’m sitting here typing away with purple bruises under my arms and on one of my legs from the spill I took and don’t remember.

Bill says I spoke to him when this happened.  I let out a huge fart and started giggling, then told him not to inhale.  Apparently, I have a sense of humor even when I’m technically asleep.  I read up on sleepwalking.  It usually happens when a person is not in a dream state, and is either very tired or under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

I remember when I used to show horses, for several years, I competed at the 4H State Fair horse show in Virginia.  I always got really tired at that show, as fun as it was, and as well as my pony, Rusty, and I always did.  Rusty was a fan of the big exciting shows and would usually perform well.  One year during that annual show in Richmond, I shared a bed with my riding coach.  I was so tired, but while I was sleeping, I apparently thought I was on my horse.  I sat up and started wavering back and forth, as if I was riding.  My teacher described it as “doing the Watusi”.

I also remember falling out of the bunkbed in my room when I was a kid, and, more than once, getting up in the middle of the night while still asleep, thinking it was time for school.  One time, I even got dressed in a hideous outfit while still sleeping.

Despite my little Unfall early Sunday morning, I woke up feeling relatively well rested.  We decided to use Sunday morning to drive around the area and see if there were any other towns that would be attractive places to live.  I also got my first look at Clay Kaserne, which is where Bill will be working.  Below are some pictures from our drive, which took us all the way to Wöllstein.  One house we keep seeing advertised on Bookoo is located in that town.  We didn’t see the house, since Bookoo is closed on Sundays and we couldn’t access the address.  Also, it appears to be too much like the house we’re already in.  However, I will say that Wöllstein appears to be the kind of town I’d like to find, even if it is a bit too far for Bill’s new commute, and the house is very reasonably priced.

This is wine country…  and I noticed a lot of little wine tasting places just south of Wiesbaden.  I think this is where I want to live.

I have to admit, the mountains in that area are pretty puny… 

 

We also drove through Mainz, which is in Rhineland-Palatinate, just over the river from Wiesbaden, which is in Hesse.  I didn’t get the chance to take any pictures of Mainz, but I am sure there will soon be many pictures in this blog of both places.  Mainz has some jaw dropping architecture and I have read that if you’re looking for nightlife, it’s better than Wiesbaden is.  Bill and I are boring middle aged people who no longer hang out in bars, so Wiesbaden is probably more our speed.  But I do look forward to getting to know both cities.

We went back to the hotel at about 1:00pm, hoping to let the dogs nap while we had lunch at the Thai restaurant right next door to Town Hotel.  Unfortunately, the housekeeper was just about to clean our room, so it wasn’t a good time to let the dogs have their alone time.  We took them with us to Chookdee, the very beautifully decorated eatery next door.  Since Zane and Arran aren’t exactly the most relaxed dogs when there’s food around, we decided to eat at the restaurant’s one outdoor table.

This was our view.  I took a picture of this sign because it looks like something I might want to attend.  We will be in town that day, too.

Obligatory Bill shot…

I had delicious crispy duck with garlic sauce, green beans, cilantro, and lemongrass.  This drove Zane crazy, although he was basically well-behaved for most of lunch.  The waiter, who seemed to enjoy Zane and Arran, had just poured the garlic sauce over the duck and made it steam!

Bill had chicken with coconut milk, peanut sauce, and peanuts.  It was a bit spicy, thanks to the peppers.  I loved Bill’s dish.  Both came with rice, of course.  I saw some really good looking appetizers in their huge menu, but I decided that would be too much food.

Zane was more vocal than Arran was, until some lady brought a little dog past them that made them react.  It took a couple of minutes for them to calm down and one of the cooks at Karim’s came out and gave me a dirty look, which I was happy to return.  He started laughing and went away.  

Arran is turning into quite the little gent.  

I didn’t go inside the restaurant, but Bill said it’s really beautiful inside.  We’ll have to go back so I can eat more stuff with peanut sauce and coconut milk.  

 

I can’t eat as much as I once did, but you’d definitely never know it to look at me.  However, I have to admit the temptation to eat more was there at this restaurant.  I really had trouble deciding what I wanted because there were so many appealing choices.

By the time we finished lunch, the room was ready.  We had a little rest and talked more about how we’re going to make this move happen.  I wish I enjoyed the relocation process more.

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dental

Another afternoon in Stuttgart…

Today, Bill and I took advantage of the holiday and went to Stuttgart to get my dental impressions done for my implant.  The lady who helped Dr. Blair pull my baby tooth was there to do the job.  I think she recognized me from three weeks ago, when I had my crying jag, because she asked me if I was nervous.  I said I wasn’t nervous, but I was pretty hungry.  I was grateful she took us early, since I was about to starve.  I neglected to eat lunch before we set out on our journey.  After four minutes with my teeth stuck in dental putty, we were all finished.  Seems to me when I had full mouth impressions in the 80s, the dentist used nasty Plaster of Paris.  Now they use this gummy stuff, today colored hot pink, which is only marginally less nasty.  At least it doesn’t take long to have impressions done.

After my very quick appointment, during which my dental implant surgery was scheduled and Valium ordered, we had a late lunch and did some shopping.  First, we stopped by Ridmueller, a beer store recommended by the Stuttgart Beer Club.  It’s not a big store yet, but there are some interesting selections available there, including Icelandic beers.  We picked up a selection of stuff we haven’t seen elsewhere, then rounded the corner and looked for lunch.

One of the four beer fridges.  It’s not a big store yet, but the selection is interesting.  With a little love and support, Ridmueller could turn into something special.

 

I was famished and my blood sugar was dropping fast, so we ended up at Weber, a nice sit down restaurant that seems to offer a little something for everyone, yet seems to specialize in Thai food.

Bill enjoys a brief break…  Plenty of comfortable seating at Weber and a great menu.  We sipped some wine and tasted the bread, which had an essence of honey.

I started with this delicious bowl of green peanut curry soup garnished with lemongrass.  It was a bit rich, but I was so hungry I found it instantly restorative.  This soup is creamy with a hearty peanut flavor and plenty of spicy zing.  I was sorry we didn’t order mineral water, but my red wine soothed the burn until I got used to it.  I would definitely get this soup again; it was really good.  I bet it would be especially good for someone who needs their sinuses cleared.

I followed the soup with coconut shrimp.  This was cooked in a wok with rice noodles and a tasty assortment of vegetables including carrots, eggplant, spinach, peppercorns, peppers, zucchini, sprouts and what I think may have been plantains.  The whole thing was drenched with lime coconut sauce.  I liked this, but…

I liked Bill’s choice better.  He had the Monkey-Nut-Chili-Chicken Pasta.  It was basically rice noodles with tender strips of chicken, the same array of vegetables that was in my dish, plus a delicious, hearty peanut sauce.  Bill’s dish needed no seasoning, while mine needed a dash of salt because it was a little bland.

 

I wasn’t able to finish my lunch, owing to the yummy soup I ate first.  I brought about half of my shrimp and rice noodles home with me.  Lunch tomorrow should be delightful!

Weber is located in Stuttgart Mitte, again very close to Dr. Blair’s dentist office.  For those who don’t like Thai style food, there were also a few local selections, as well as several daily specials.  I almost went for the dorade special, but I can get dorade most anywhere.  Ditto for the tempting salmon filet served with lime coconut sauce, basmati rice, and sugar snap peas…  Maybe next time.  They also had Argentinian roast beef that looked good. 

 

After lunch, we went on a brief shopping spree at the Markthalle.  Though we were there last week, this time, we were prepared to shop.  And shop we did…

I got a kick out of this six euro bag of Old El Paso tortillas in the Asian market.

 

Bill checks out Spanish cheeses.  He bought some, as well as slivers of Serrano and Iberian hams and Spanish Sauvignon Blanc…

The Spanish market got lots of our euros today.  In the background, you can see the Balkan market, where we picked up some Croatian and Montenegrin wines, as well as a little bottle of Unicum.

I got some truffles… I love that most of them are full of alcohol.

We also picked up some Parmesan and Gruyere cheeses.  I wish I liked cheese more than I do, since Bill ends up eating most of what we buy.  Still, it was a lot of fun to shop at the Markthalle in Stuttgart.  I think a person could seriously lose control in that place and go a little hog wild.  Next time, I want to bring some lined bags and get some really good beef and fish.

The musician who was playing rapid fire Beethoven on an electric keyboard last week was back today.  This time, I didn’t catch the title of the music he was playing on his keyboard.  I think he had a handler, though.  Bet he sells CDs.

Our next trip to Stuttgart will probably be December 1.  That is when I will have dental surgery.  I doubt I’ll be in the mood to shop afterwards.  I may want to drink, though.

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Bavaria, holidays

President’s Day Weekend in Regensburg… Part 5

Saturday night was especially hectic in Regensburg because it happened to be Valentine’s Day.  When Bill and I woke up from our naps, it was dinner time.  We weren’t really hungry, but we knew that if we didn’t get something light for dinner, we’d be ravenous in the morning.  So we went looking for food.  Unfortunately, Bill wasn’t feeling so hot.  He had a scratchy throat and a slight cough.  He said his chest was getting heavy.  I started dreading it, because I feared I’d soon get what it looked like he had.

Most every restaurant we saw was packed with people.  We also saw a guy dressed in a costume, obviously because he does the nighttime candlelight tours offered in Regensburg.  We saw him approaching one of the squares, where a group appeared to be waiting for him.  He muttered “Shit!”, then changed direction.  We later saw him approaching from another direction.  I don’t know what that was all about… Bill said he probably had to go to the WC or something.

We finally ended up having our Valentine’s Day dinner at Ha Tien, a little hole in the wall Asian place that had pizza, Asian food, and at one time, it looked like they had doner kebab, too (it was x’d out on the menu, though).  I had a crispy duck with rice and vegetables.  Bill had spicy chicken with vegetables.  We took a risk and didn’t ask if the vegetables had mushrooms in them.  They did.  Bill gallantly removed them from my dish and fortunately, they didn’t turn the flavor too earthy for me.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel because Bill was still feeling icky.  On the way back, we noticed one large cafe had seemingly closed early and was hosting some kind of dance class.  I don’t know if that’s a regular thing or something they just do for Valentine’s Day.  It looked like fun, though… if only I could get Bill to dance!

When we got to the elevator at the hotel, we could hear a bunch of kids on it giggling and yelling, so we decided it would be better to use the stairs.  We went to our room where, not long after my evening shower, Bill proceeded to lose his spicy chicken dinner.  When Bill throws up, it’s very loud.  Sadly, his vomiting episode went on for several long minutes.  Poor guy.  He felt better afterwards, though.  I think the spices put him over the edge.

It took awhile to get back to sleep, thanks to the kids running amok in the halls and the fact that we’d both had naps.  I entertained myself by watching and listening to horribly strange YouTube videos by a guy who calls himself “Lil Markie”.  I blogged about him on my main blog.

I also researched a spa concept I spotted while wandering around Regensburg.  In Germany, there’s a spa chain called Float.  Basically, it’s a place where you can float naked in warm salty water in a pitch black tank for an hour.  I thought about booking a session there, but determined that I’d probably get claustrophobic.  Besides, it’s not a cheap experience, though it is one of the rare activities one can do seven days a week in Germany.  I see they have a location in Stuttgart, too.  Maybe someday I’ll work up the nerve and try it.

It wasn’t much of a Valentine’s Day meal…  Maybe we’ll do better next year.

I didn’t know Oskar Schindler once lived in Regensburg.

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